In Shadows
by mantisbelle
Summary: Espionage wasn't always exciting work, Ilia knew that. However, she'd never had a task that she'd wanted to do less than spy on Blake Belladonna.


The news that Blake Belladonna had returned home to Menagerie had come to Ilia twice. First, in passing in and out of the corner of her eye as she passed through the streets of Kuo Kuana. Second, it came from the Albain twins who had decided to make the announcement in unison and with some excitement.

The choice to come to her had been made by the twins themselves. That was just how things tended to go those days, since the Albain twins had become the de facto diplomats of the Menagerie branch of the White Fang. High Leader Sienna Khan was too busy to deal with such trifling matters as what happened with the Belladonnas as long as the family stayed out of the way.

Because of that, everything else went to the twins.

When Fennec and Corsac had come to her, they had thought that she would be _elated_ to know that her old friend was back home. Deep down, Ilia desperately wished that could be the case, but she knew too much. They all did.

Ilia remembered the day that her friend had left home, following after a man that now seemed to rabidly hunt her for no reason other than anger. The Fang had been in chaos back then, with High Leader Ghira Belladonna having stepped down to take the position of Chieftain of Kua Koana when Aruna Bhediya had decided to retire. All of the Belladonnas had left then.

Except for Blake.

It was strange, sitting outside of the mansion that the Belladonna family now called home. Ilia could feel her legs cramping as she rested on her perch in the treetops, all of her weight balancing so delicately on the balls of her feet as she watched from behind a mask with slitted eyes. It was annoying to wear, aside from the fact that it just plain felt _wrong_.

Before, nobody had worn masks. They'd shown their faces with _pride_.

How things had changed.

She was just watching Blake- trying to see whether or not the girl was getting ready to make a move, either leaving Menagerie or staying in place. It wasn't something that Ilia wanted to do, but in a lot of ways she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. She was the best person to play the role of a spy, and Ilia knew all too well about what happened when people would try to _leave._

There were always rumors, about what would happen should someone try to leave the White Fang. Kali and Ghira Belladonna had only been able to stay safe for so long because of the fact that they were now _public figures._ But nobody would care about a bookstore owner in Vale, or a little girl that didn't want to spy on her old friend. They would simply blend into the background and go forgotten.

Blake had tried to run, and now she was being hunted. Not necessarily for the same reasons as normal, but she was nonetheless.

Ilia took a deep breath, trying hard not to lose her concentration and risk shifting colors along with her emotions. It was important above all else that she managed to keep her skin the inky black shade that let her blend into the shadows cast by the shattered moon even in the dark of night.

After all, being seen was the absolute worst thing that could happen, now more than ever.

The White Fang having a role in the fall of Vale had managed to stay a secret for so long, but now it had slipped out, according to the Albain twins. If the Fang was caught actively spying on the Chieftain's home, the consequences would be catastrophic for them. Ilia knew the stakes- they'd been laid out clearly when she'd been assigned this role.

But so little happened there at the Belladonna palace. So much all she had seen had seemed to be genuine in nature. It was just Blake trying so desperately to reconnect with her parents that she had so famously alienated when she'd left. Of course, that wasn't to say that Blake had landed on Menagerie _alone._

So far, Ilia hadn't been able to learn much about him aside from the fact that he was generally unwelcome in the Belladonna home. It didn't seem like Blake necessarily wanted him there, and it seemed like Ghira wanted him there even less, with Kali acting as a loving hostess as she always had. Ilia tried not to read into it- there were some things that she doubted she'd be able to get the proper context for by spying alone.

She shifted slightly, watching Blake sit down at her family's dinner table the same way that she would back when they were younger. She still sat in the same place, after all of those years. Kali offered tea, and the monkey boy all too gladly accepted it with his tail. Ilia could have sworn that she'd seen the Chieftain roll his eyes over it.

Blake sat there and tried to enjoy her meal. She didn't say much, but of course she didn't, Ilia thought to herself. Blake had always been more quiet, more interested in books when she had her spare time than anything else. Back then, most of the time that Ilia had spent with Blake had been in the capacity of learning to fight side by side.

A certain sort of camaraderie would naturally grow from that.

For Ilia, it had always felt like friendship rather than just being sisters in arms. She'd truly thought that she had a friend in Blake, and she'd been so sad to see her friend leave. Leaving on the heels of Adam Taurus had just left Ilia concerned.

The three of them had spent enough time together. Back then, Ilia had gotten a bad feeling about him but had never been able to voice it. She'd seen what he was capable of, and he might have been the most talented yet fanatical fighter that they had. It wasn't a good thing, he was easily the most ruthless person that Ilia had ever met.

Ilia had stayed in Menagerie because it was a place where she could continue the fight for her people without ending up involved in things that she didn't want to be. That wasn't to say that she was _afraid_ to fight, it was more that most of the time she would have preferred not to have to.

But even then, so much of the choice to stay at home had to do with home itself. She didn't have it in her to run off on her family like Blake had. Ilia didn't want to _abandon_ her friends and family like Blake had.

Even now, after so many years, it remained a bitter pill to swallow. That knowledge that Blake could have just as easily _stayed_ hurt more than anything. They could have still been friends, the Belladonna family could still be together as they were. Blake wouldn't be the subject of a hunt that she seemed to think she was safe from as long as she was in Menagerie.

She wasn't safe. She never would be.

Ilia knew that.

When it came to the White Fang or to Adam Taurus, there was no such thing as _safe_.

There was a reason that Ilia didn't say no when jobs like this one were brought to her. She knew too much. She knew better than to think that she could get by unnoticed or unpunished.

The more that she thought about these things, Ilia could practically feel a heat boiling underneath her skin, threatening to make it shift to the too-vibrant red that would get her noticed in a heartbeat. The girl had to grit her teeth and remember not to let herself move, and force those feelings back. She needed to stay calm, stay cool. Be nothing more than a shadow in the night.

She needed to stay there in the shadows for as long as she possibly could. Sleep was something to worry about later. The fact that she was on near-constant surveillance of Blake's entire _existence_ made it hard for her to find time to be able to rest, but Ilia managed.

That was what she was supposed to do. She had always been able to take pride in her adaptability and that was true even now. Even now, as her legs cramped and she wanted to go and be able to lie down and rest, she stood still and calm.

There was no room for mistakes.

For hours, Ilia sat there in the boughs of the trees around the Belladonna home. From time to time she would let herself move, following Blake by watching her through windows as the girl walked through the house.

There was something about it all that left Ilia feeling gross. She was intruding on things that she didn't belong in, but unlike the monkey boy (who she had learned was named Sun Wukong through her surveillance,) Ilia didn't have the luxury of being a known factor. She couldn't avoid that gross feeling that she was being forced to _stalk_ an old friend.

It was spying, she had to tell herself. It was _different._

She had to tell herself that over and over and over, and every time she felt herself getting worked up or upset, she had to force that feeling back down. To stay like she was now, she needed to feel nothing and she needed to be able to hold herself in that way.

Ilia didn't want to think about what would happen if one of the Albain twins found out that she was getting too involved in this emotionally. It would spell disaster, they _knew_ that she and Blake had been close back then. They didn't know exactly how close, but they knew enough.

It was a weakness that was too easily exploited. In a way, that was something that was already happening. The fact that Ilia was there now watching her old friend doing nothing outside of the realm of harmless told her enough.

Blake Belladonna was home to reconnect with her family after having spent years off the map. As much as Ilia wanted to be able to slide in and get close to her old friend, she was sure that wasn't possible. If Blake had wanted involvement with anyone other than her family, she would have gone looking for them..

As Ilia understood it, Blake didn't want anything to do with the White Fang these days. Based on what the twins had said, Blake still wanted to fight for their cause, just it didn't seem like she wanted to do it with _them_.

Ilia shifted again, following Blake from the outside of the house from room to room until she saw that Blake was alone, in a room that had been hers before she'd seemingly left Menagerie for good. Once again Ilia settled into her place amongst the treetops, watching Blake diligently for any sign that she was doing anything that needed to be reported.

But nothing happened.

Blake shrugged out of her coat, sat down on her bed, and made sure that Gambol Shroud was still in working order. She laid down with one of her books as she always would, trying hard to relax. Once in awhile it looked like Blake would absentmindedly trace her fingers over a scar on her stomach, but it wasn't anything of note.

Ilia let out a quiet sigh, moving so that she could stand up and being careful not to let her mask slip off of her face. She was going to have to go back and meet with Corsac and Fennec and report any findings that she had. How were they going to react when they found out that Ilia had nothing of interest?

Surely they didn't want reports on what kind of tea Kali liked to serve at the table, or stories about a team of boys from one of the combat academies in Mistral. They wouldn't want to know that Blake had gone to bed after reading for an hour or so. Ilia had nothing of worth that she'd be able to report to the twins.

The branch beneath her creaked quietly when she tried to move and alleviate some of the cramping in her legs and prepare to move. Ilia froze in place, reaching out and placing one hand on the tree next to her for the sake of balance and her other hand going to her sword just in case she needed it.

She didn't want to use it, but if she ended up with no other option, Ilia was going to have to use it.

Blake seemed to hear it. Ilia could tell- it was all there in that twitch of her old friend's ears as she set her book down beside her face-down. Ilia could have sworn that she was holding her breath the entire time. She shifted, slipping back behind a tree so that the bone white of her mask wouldn't stand out amongst the night.

Everything else would blend in, that was the gift granted to her by her genetics. But Ilia wasn't able to change the colors of the things she wore.

There was the sound of a window opening, and Ilia had to piece together what was happening. Surely, Blake was leaning out of it and looking for anything that would tell her that something was wrong. She was looking for anything that she had to be afraid of, and Ilia just did the best not to be that thing.

If Blake didn't know that she was there, her old friend couldn't be afraid.

Staying there, stock-still as she had to was something that felt like it lasted for an eternity, despite the fact that it could only have been a minute or two. Ilia squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to calm herself and waited. She took a seat against the tree and just listened for safety.

The only thing that she heard of interest was the sound of Blake's bedroom light clicking off.

Ilia waited a little bit longer after that before she finally dropped down out of the trees and to the ground beside the Belladonna mansion. She walked through the bushes as silently as she could until she broke out of the other side, sliding her mask off of her face and dropping her disguise so that she could blend in as a normal person that had definitely not been up to anything strange that night.

She had to get back to the headquarters so that she could report to the twins on her finding that night.

But as she walked, Ilia couldn't concentrate on that. All that she could really think about was what she would have wanted to say to Blake if she had gotten the chance to talk to her. Ilia doubted that there was going to be a chance for that to happen.

Maybe she could tell Blake that she missed her.

That wasn't right. That would only end in disaster.

She could tell Blake everything- that the twins were in contact with Adam and had already passed on the information about Blake's return.

But she _knew_ how Blake could be. Even when they were young Blake had gotten worked up over things easier than she should have. If she went so outright, it was too likely that Blake would get scared and run again, probably right into Adam's grip.

Ilia couldn't do that.

As she walked, Ilia went over so many options and nothing felt quite right. It was all speculation after all.

In the end, the only thing that she could settle on was that she would tell Blake that she shouldn't have come back to Menagerie.

It wasn't much, but it was enough. It was a warning, if nothing else.

Deep down, Ilia prayed that she never had to utter those words.


End file.
